Search Results: 'Yan Guang'

Roots of the Poison

Words: 2987 · Source Novel:: The Seed of Malice

Han retraces the escalation through court records. Ambitious magistrate Tian Wenyuan, eager for promotion, saw the “sorcerer list” as a chance to fabricate a full rebellion and impress the suspicious Emperor Ming. He personally supervised the interrogations, perfecting a technique of “chain confession.” Han discovers that the famous accuser Yan Guang was merely a debtor paid by Tian to play the righteous informer. The chapter intercuts between Han’s investigation and Tian’s perspective decades earlier—his inner monologue revealing not ideological zeal, but a bureaucrat’s petty calculation that “big cases make great careers.”